The Daylight War (108 page)

Asome darkened a bit at that, but Asukaji laid a hand on his arm. ‘It is all right, cousin. Go.’ His voice dropped to a whisper, but Inevera, her senses sharpened by magic, heard him. ‘I will keep our son until your return.’ He kissed Asome with such tenderness that Inevera’s heart ached for them both, but Ashia’s shifting behind her was a reminder that there was a third side in the triangle.

She looked to her grandson.
And
poor
Kaji
in
the
middle.

They walked in silence to the wall of the inner city. Inevera wore opaque robes of white silk, looking much like her
dama’ting
robes of old, but she wore her hood back, and her veil was gossamer. The warded gold coins were warm at her forehead, and she wore considerable jewellery, not all of it decorative. Her robes shimmered with wards of unsight stitched in electrum thread. The wards were Mistress Leesha’s, stolen from Ahmann’s Cloak of Unsight, but even knowing the Skull Throne would hold the
alagai
from the wall, she could not deny the comfort they gave her in the naked night.

Take
her
power
and
make
it
your
own
,
Manvah had said, and Inevera silently thanked her mother once more for the lesson. She would have been a fool to turn away such magics simply because she despised the source.

But even without the protections of her robes and the Skull Throne, Inevera felt safe so long as Ashia was at her side. Enkido had told Inevera he could not be prouder of the girl’s fighting skill if she had been his own daughter.

Born
to
sharusahk
,
his nimble hands had said.

Ashia had a short, stabbing spear over her right shoulder, along with a small quiver of arrows. In her left hand, the same arm where she strapped her round shield, she gripped a short bow. The weapons were banded with warded gold and strips of
hora
. The armour beneath her black robes was indestructible warded glass, moulded to accent her feminine figure rather than mask it. Asome’s expression was unreadable as he regarded his wife.

The Mehnding
Sharum
guarding the gatehouse began buzzing among themselves as the trio approached. A moment later a
kai’Sharum
appeared, blocking their path with a deep bow. ‘Apologies, Damajah, but …’

Asome was moving before the man could straighten, taking his chin firmly in hand as he threw. There was an audible snap, and the man hit the ground, dead. ‘Does anyone else wish to hinder the Damajah?’

The remaining
Sharum
fell to their knees, pressing foreheads to the cobbled street. After a moment, a red-veiled drillmaster rose with a bow and escorted them up to the wall.

The Mehnding tribe was third largest of the twelve tribes of Krasia, due in no small part to the mastery of war engines and ranged weapons that kept them from the close combat other
Sharum
engaged in. They were more engineers and marksmen than warriors, but they manned the walls of the inner and outer city with the steel-eyed vigilance of trained killers.

Everam’s Bounty was built on a hill, with the inner city at its peak. Ahmann’s palace was its highest point, but even the low wall of the inner city offered an impressive vantage of the countryside. Wardlight dotted the terrain as the sun set, and mirrored bonfires sprang up to help the
Sharum
see the enemy.

And as feared, the enemy came in force. The Skull Throne protected a large section of ground past the walls, but in the unwarded patches of the outer city, massive rock demons – larger than anything Inevera had ever seen – rose to tower over the warriors assembled to contain them. At their heels clustered field and flame demons, filling the open patches in seething scales and gouts of bright flame.

The Mehnding
kai’Sharum
signalled the attack. Keen-eyed spotters with distance lenses mounted on tripods called calculations to the stinger and sling teams, who adjusted their tensions accordingly and began to fire. Giant stinger spears arced into the air, their powerful warding blasting through even rock demon armour. The sling teams, careful to give no ammunition to the rocks, fired payloads of small warded stones that scattered demons with hundreds of tiny explosions of magic.

They did heavy damage, as did the teams of Mehnding bowmen bolstering the infantry. The
alagai
screamed, and for a moment, men had the advantage.

But then the rocks began to dig, heedless of the smaller demons they brushed aside. Several of them had large stingers jutting from their armour, but none had been brought down. They were quickly underground, safe from missile fire, even as the stinger and sling teams hurried to reload.

The teams had time to fire again, killing dozens of the smaller demons, but then the first rock reappeared holding a sizable boulder. Arrows fell on it like rain, but seemed to hinder it no more than insect bites as it cocked its arm and threw, blasting the stone through the nearest wardpillar, breaking a portion of the net. Immediately the field demons charged the breach, moving with terrifying speed. The
Sharum
locked their shields, but were not fully in position to hold the breach. The demons fell on them, tearing and biting as others circled around, some harrying their flanks and yet more escaping unhindered into the night to stalk the unwary. Firespit scattered off shields, starting blazes that quickly grew on their own.

The rock bent, digging again, as several more of its fellows rose with boulders of their own.

Inevera had never seen fighting on such a scale. The
Sharum
acquitted themselves well, but even she could see the
alagai
acted with unusual cunning, striking in unexpected places and steadily weakening the wardnet of the outer city, slowly working their way up the hill towards the inner walls. They would not enter, but the demons could easily smash the walls and rain destruction on the city. Fires and collapsing buildings could kill as easily as
alagai
talons.

Out in the city, the
Sharum
were fighting for their lives. Rock demons occasionally lobbed stones into clusters of warriors, breaking them apart long enough for the field and flame demons to swarm the openings. Most of the men were armoured, but that meant little against boulders and firespit. Wind demons began to circle in the sky above the wardnet, dropping stones carried in their hind talons. Their aim was less precise than the rocks, but the havoc they created did more damage than the stones themselves.

With the
Sharum
fighting spear-to-claw, the Mehnding on the wall could not risk firing on the demons harrying them, focusing instead on the rocks. Whenever one appeared with a stone, it was hit with several stingers or a sling of warded stones. A few of the giant demons were killed outright, and more missed their marks entirely.

But one mammoth rock managed to get within range of the city gates, carrying a boulder big enough to shatter them wide. It would not allow demons ingress, but it would kill many warriors guarding the gatehouse, and strike fear into the hearts of men who needed to be brave. Stingers stuck from the demon’s thick carapace, but it moved with focus, hurling its stone.

‘Everam’s beard,’ Asome breathed.

Inevera ignored the comment, reaching into her robe and producing the slender forearm bone she had taken from the mind demon Ahmann had killed. Dipped in electrum, it shone bright with power to her wardsight. She pointed the item at the stone, her fingers skilfully manipulating the wards etched at the gripping end. She uncovered heat and impact wards, sending the power hurtling at the stone.

The spell looked like a greenland firefly as it flew to its target, but when it struck, there was an explosion that lit the night and heated the faces of the observers, smashing the stone into a cloud of dust.

Amazed eyes turned to Inevera as she next pointed her
hora
wand at the rock demon itself. Again a sizzling speck of light that exploded on impact, throwing down the demon and driving the stingers already embedded in its armour through to the more vulnerable flesh beneath. It landed on its back, chest smoking, and did not rise.

‘Mother …’ Asome began, but his words trailed off as he stared at her. Inevera smiled. It was good to remind her ambitious son that she commanded power he should fear. Ashia and the Mehnding looked no less awestruck, and that, too, was well.

Out on the field, warriors took heart at the display, redoubling their efforts to contain the demons even as reinforcements came.

But there was reaction from the
alagai
as well. A flight of wind demons dived out of the sky, heading directly for Inevera, each carrying a heavy stone in its talons. Ashia had her bow in hand and plucked one from the sky like a fattened goose. The Mehnding bowmen took down others, but not before a number of stones hurtled their way. Inevera felt herself grabbed and thrown to the rampart as one of the battlements exploded right next to her. Rubble fell like rain, but Asome remained atop her, taking the brunt of the impact.

When it was over, half his face was covered in blood, and she could see his arm was broken, twisted at an impossible angle. She reached out for him, but her son rose smoothly to his feet. He took the wrist of his broken arm in his good hand, pulling the limb straight and letting it hang loosely at his side. The pain was no doubt incredible, but Asome kept control, showing no sign of it as he reached down to her, offering his good hand to help her to her feet. ‘It is nothing that cannot wait, Mother.’ He thrust his chin out beyond the wall. ‘You have greater concerns.’

Inevera accepted the hand, but put no weight on it as she sprang to her feet. She looked out in the direction her son had indicated, eyes widening. Fighting was fierce in the outer city, and fiercer still beyond the outer wall, but it was all a distraction.

From her vantage, Inevera could see what Ahmann could not, though even she had been so occupied by the battle she might have missed it until it was too late. Out in the teeming wheat beyond the city, flame demons were burning with precision, forming wards the size of entire fields. Soon the symbols would activate, giving the
alagai
a terrifying advantage.

Asome saw it, too. ‘They are truly the agents of Nie, stealing our ability to feed our people and using it to power their dark magics. We have no choice but to burn the rest of the fields to destroy the wardnet.’

‘Perhaps,’ Inevera said, remembering her prophecy. She looked to Ashia. ‘Your uncle must hear of this.’

The
kai’Sharum’ting
did not hesitate, leaping from the wall and redirecting the impact of her landing into a tight roll that threw her right back onto her feet. She sprinted down the hill into the outer city, quickly disappearing into the darkness.

Asome looked at her. ‘Bad enough you defy the Deliverer by bringing her out onto the wall, but now you send my
jiwah
out into the naked night? If the
alagai
don’t get her, surely Father will kill her for her disobedience.’

‘What do you care?’ Inevera asked. ‘If she dies in the night or is killed for her disobedience, your problems are solved, are they not?’

‘I asked for divorce, not her death,’ Asome said.

‘You will get neither, my son,’ Inevera said. ‘No demon will touch her, and you do not know your father as well as you think. His first duty is to Sharak Ka. Ashia’s information may mean the difference between victory and defeat. He will thank her for her service and forget it until Waning is past, and then offer her a token reprimand, followed by a public honouring. No longer will
Sharum’ting
be confined to the Undercity on Wanings.’

‘Your goal all along,’ Asome said. There was no bitterness in his tone, but she sensed it nevertheless.

‘What is more important to you,’ Inevera asked, ‘winning Sharak Ka, or keeping your wife beneath your sandal? The heroism of your
jiwah
can boost your power, if you let it. I know you do not feel for her as you do Asukaji, but she is the sister of your lover, the mother of your son, and you made oaths to her before Everam. Those ties bind an honest man as tightly as love.’

Asome looked ready to argue the words, but then deflated, considering. Inevera reached out, touching his good arm. ‘A great man does not fear his wife will steal his glory, Asome. He uses her support to reach even higher.’

T
he
alagai
massed outside the city walls in a horde that cut fear into even the bravest
Sharum
. Thousands of demons, field and flame, rock and wood. The night sky teemed with wind demons, shrieking as they circled.